Strategy Plan: Youth’s Political Participation

The democratic environment over the last decade provided a crucial opportunity for civil and political activities in Afghanistan in which not only political parties but also civil society organizations, youth groups and networks were founded to consolidate democracy and endeavor to push forward their participation in politics and society. In terms youth organizations and activities, their first experience and steps were effective but they have act individually and their activities were limited which undermined their leading role as social and political dynamism in Afghan society and politics. Therefore, a small civil-political youth groups and organizations raised the idea of coming up to start an informal series of track2 meetings. Initially the track2 meetings held in The Liaison Office (TLO) with representatives of Afghanistan 1400, Afghanistan Awareness and Analysis (A3), Wadan Afghanistan, and Solidarity Network for Change, New Line Organization, Afghanistan 3^rd Trend later few more groups like and Afghanistan Green Youth National Coalition, Young Activists Network for Reform and Change and Afghanistan Forward

The Contact Group which is an umbrella of youth groups, networks and organizations has been serving as a platform for young civil-political actors since January 2014. The platform aims at providing the ground for systematic exchange of ideas and strategic clarification of political vision that reflects the interest of youth as well as identify and integrate the scattered youth groups, networks and organizations to ensure their leading role in democratic development and successful transformation in the coming decade (2015-2024).

The Contact Group would facilitate the ground for youth engagement in dialogues and strive to act as a collective measure to influence government related policies, strategies, programs and agenda to reflect and ensure the interest of young people in future.

In order to provide a clear direction to the work of the Contact Group in the coming two years 2016-2017, Contact Group through a participatory approach, identified programmatic interventions that will enable the Contact Group to move forward towards achieving its vision and mission. The interlinked interventions are complementary and based on the Contact Group’s clients’ needs and the capacity of the Contact Group.

A willingness to work together and get engaged the youths participating in political processes at the national level, demonstrate a collective commitment to encourage the marginalized youths  who are intended to be included in the political, social and economic and cultural processes, create self-confidence and contribute to sustainable peaceful development are to overall vision of the Contact Group.  

For the greater outcome, the Contact Group has to highlight the changes it would like to see in the society and also its contribution and efforts to achieve the expected impact.  Within this context, the Contact Group is committed to enhance its professional capacity to effectively and efficiently perform its interventions.

The implementation of this strategy will require carefully structured approaches consisting of a work-plan for implementation such as Annual Budget-plan, Annual Work-plan and Monthly Action Plans. Each of these will be developed and put in place by the management of Contact Group.

Contact Group management has to be focused on sharing the vision, mission, core values and strategies of the Contact Group with the staff and stakeholders to align them in achieving the vision and mission of the Contact Group.